Speaking on the subject of the
gifts of the Spirit Paul's emphasis from the very start Was Christ
who he is? He's Lord It's the Spirit that
gifts them that calls the Lord The Lord by the Holy Ghost and
that same Holy Ghost is is identified as specifically
not having anything to do with anyone who could call Jesus accursed. And so that's, again, definitive
of this whole chapter, of this whole subject of gifts. Remember what spirit it is. Remember
what the purpose of these gifts are. It's the exaltation of God's
son. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
He exalts Christ. And that's clear in those first
three verses. And now in verse four, he talks about diversities
of gifts. There are diversities of gifts,
but the same spirit, differences of administrations
or offices, different ways that those gifts are employed or Used
and then There are diversities of operations in those different
ways that the Lord uses his people by his spirit Everybody could
have a different task within that but it's the same God which
worketh all in all same spirit same Lord same God and that he
just talked about as being the one who owns you and has power
of deciding. That's the definition of the
word Lord. That spirit that gives his people in these different
ways is the one that exalts Christ in him only. It's the same spirit by which
Paul said, I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus
Christ and what he did on Calvary, what he accomplished. So different
gifts, different services in which to employ those gifts and
even various things to do in each service to be involved in
it. And you know what it sounds like
to me? If the Spirit does all of that, it sounds like you can't
change a toilet paper roll in his house without it being the
Spirit of God that gave you the desire and the ability to do
that. Every bit of it's attributed
to the Spirit. Everything, every task. I can tell you this, some people
attend worship for decades and never do so much as that. Don't
misunderstand me. Don't make stuff up to do because
you think you've got to be doing something all the time. You don't,
but I'm not saying that. I am saying that a helpful spirit
to do anything that needs to be done is a gift from God. It doesn't matter what the task
is. The gift itself and the opportunity
to use that gift in whatever ways the Lord sees fit are a
spiritual blessing from him. That affects everything. That's
the mindset that we must have in light of the scriptures here.
And again, now there are many manifestations of these gifts.
See in verse seven, but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every
man to profit withal. In other words, the gifts that
are given, they're put on display in actual things done, not in
magic shows and tricks, but in tasks performed in the worship
of God. But in every case, it's that
same spirit that calls Jesus Lord, it is the spirit given
to every man to profit with all, the manifestation of that. When
you see in the church, the gifts of the spirit being utilized
and worked in people by God, that's for the profit of the
church, for everybody. You see that? For every man,
the manifestation or the open display of the spirit in these
gifts and the things done because of the gifts It's given to all
of us. You may not have a particular
gift, but you still benefit from that gift that you don't even
have. You see that? Every man profits with all. And
that word profit is to get help. It helps us to see that. We've talked about this before
from other scripture. Everything you do affects everybody
else. Whether we realize it or not,
good or bad. Good or bad. So let's talk about that. It's
the same spirit now that could never call Jesus accursed. The
believer bows to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who owns us
and decides every matter concerning us. when it comes to us, all the
decisions are his, and worships him as God's spotless lamb. We could never call him accursed. He said that if you have the
spirit of God, you could never do that. That's who we worship is the
spotless lamb, the sinless one, who by virtue of his sinless
perfection, An immaculate holiness redeemed our souls with his precious
blood. Not tainted blood, precious,
sin-cleansing blood. As Isaiah wrote in 53 of Isaiah,
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. In other
words, people saw him suffering and dying on a cross, And they
thought, well, look, they said things like that. He's crying
out to God. God don't want anything to do
with him. He's accursed, in other words. But listen to what Isaiah
said. We esteemed him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. They mocked at the cross, before
the cross and after the cross and at the cross, and said that
the cross was him getting what he deserved. But we know from
the scriptures that the cross was him getting what we deserved.
That's the simple gospel of substitution. He took our place under the wrath
of God that we deserved, not him. The scriptures say that he suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. And in the ministration of these
gifts, the gifts themselves, the way those gifts are used,
it is that spirit, that Lord, that God that worketh, that worketh
in us. And he's not only the one that
works it in us, but he himself is the motivation for what we
do. We look to Him, the spotless, sinless Son of God, and we worship,
not just in word, but in deed. And what are we gonna do? Whatever
God gifts us to do. Look what the gifts are. The
word of wisdom, for example, says that Christ is Lord, not
accursed. The word of wisdom says that. The word of knowledge that he
giveth says what God said about himself, about sinners and about
how sinners are saved. Because it is God that is working.
When these gifts are employed, God is working. You see that? He worketh all in all. That word where it says God worketh
The end of verse six, that word worketh is energeo. We know what word comes from
that. The energy with which we do spiritual things by faith,
remember by faith, without faith it's impossible to please God.
And we have no faith by nature. That's one of the gifts that's
listed. It's the third one, I believe.
Faith. So you see what this is now,
when the energy that we work by faith, do whatever, worship,
you can't worship without Him, without His grace, without being
a new creature in Him. And he works that in us, it is
God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure, the energy by which we do anything spiritual. Carnal is the energy of the flesh,
but God is the energy of all spiritual good works, which a
good work is defined by being a work of faith, a work that's
worked in us by the Lord. So that word Energeo is key there,
I believe. The energy is Him. Without Him, I can do nothing,
but I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. He's the inner, my spiritual
energy to do anything that might please Him by grace through faith. Now,
verse seven, look at this. But the manifestation of the
Spirit Given to every man to profit with all I want to talk
a little bit more about that the manifestation is that which
is seen when the results the effects of these Gifts of the
Spirit are seen everybody sees that And it is to be a help to
them. That's the purpose of it not
to put on some kind of spiritual display and Not a personal display
of how spiritual somebody is. The gifted one, it's not for
puffing up. It's not for competition. It's
never to be something to brag about if it's
a gift from God. But every gift of God, people
brag about, don't they? Even faith. Well, I made a decision
for Jesus, did you now? Did you? Is that how it happened? Is that how you summarize your
experience of salvation? I decided to be saved. Not good,
not good. Doesn't bode well for what happened
to you. It's never to be a measure of
spirituality or blessing. As we see in verse 11 so clearly,
look at verse 11. All these worketh that one in
the selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally as he
will. You're able according to his
will. These gifts are given according
to the will of the giver, not according to the attainments
or worthiness of the gifted. To be helpful to the church.
To be helpful to the church. Isn't that beautiful? Is that why we do what we do
in the church? In our relationships and concourse
with the people of the church? to be helpful. If it's the spirit
of God has anything to do with it, then that's what it is. If
that's not what it is, let me ask you another question
too. Do you suppose that this thing of gifts being a stumbling
block to many, The Lord gifted people to speak in tongues and
things like that, it became a stumbling block. It became a point of contention
among the church rather than helpful. But do you think that
being the case, that the gifts being a stumbling block was an
unintended consequence of God helping the church? Or do you think that maybe every
consequence of this is perfectly according to God's
will. Both mercy and hardening have
an I will in front of them in the scriptures. God still gives his people in
various ways today. Does God help his church now? Like he did then, of course he
does. Different gifts in some cases, but what Paul calls the
best gifts, those are the ones that have endured and always
will as long as this world stands. So God gives his people these
gifts now for the same reason, in order to help his church.
And it does, it does. Verse eight, for to one is given
by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge
by the same Spirit. Now, wisdom here is the same
as used in 1 Corinthians 2.2. Let me read you that, because
you're familiar with this passage, but think of it. This is the
wisdom he's talking about, and of course, the context tells
us that too. We can't just assume that it's
the, Exactly the same way that it's used just because it's the
same word But the context is clear about this listen to the
word wisdom In this passage, 1 Corinthians 2, 2, for I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. How be it we speak
wisdom. There it is. There are those
gifted With the word of wisdom, we speak wisdom. The wisdom of God in a mystery. We speak wisdom among them that
are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes
of this world that come to naught. But we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom. which God ordained before
the world unto our glory. Now, how did Paul speak wisdom? What does that look like? I determined
to know nothing among you, said Jesus Christ, whom you crucified.
That's the word of wisdom, to be gifted to preach Christ alone. That's a gift. That's impossible
to do. I guarantee you, people will
preach their petty grudges. They'll preach their personal, annoyances. They'll get on their soapboxes. They'll be distracted by a particular crossed T or dotted
I and miss the whole gospel. They'll preach that which genders
argument and strife rather than unity and worship. Mark it down. It's the gift of the Spirit of
God to be able to determine not to know anything. That's the
word of wisdom. We speak the wisdom of God. How
do you do that, Paul? By preaching nothing except Christ. Not all have that gift, to put
it mildly, but bless God, some do. Thank God for that. That's a gift from God. That's
a gift from God. Knowledge is a different word
from wisdom here, but the difference intended here is not obvious.
It's nuanced, though. There is a difference. The reason
I say it's not obvious is because the word wisdom includes broad
knowledge of things. That's part of what wisdom is. The idea that, and you probably
heard this, that wisdom is a right use of knowledge, that's not
without merit. There's something to that in
looking at the original language here. To know things is a great
gift, but wisdom is mentioned first here because knowledge
will puff up without wisdom and love. Knowledge can be mishandled. Knowledge can be used as a club.
as a spear to hurt people, not help. The word wisdom speaks
of intelligence and broad knowledge, but there are words in the definition
of wisdom also like prudence, experience, acuteness, skill,
and discretion, which are not necessarily present
in those with bare knowledge. On the other hand, you can't
be wise about something you don't know. So it does include broad
knowledge of things. That's part of God's gift. They
go together. They both are supremely helpful. They're mentioned first. And
he deliberately calls these the best gifts in dealing with this
subject. Helpful. Spiritual wisdom and
knowledge, of course, is knowing Christ. Christ is the wisdom
of God, and God giveth wisdom. We see that in the book of Proverbs.
But also, just natural wisdom. Just being wise about anything,
or knowing things that are good to know are gifts also, and they
go together with the spiritual. That's all from God is what I'm
saying. All of it's from God. We're not born with anything. Nothing's natural to us except
sin and hell. And as I've mentioned before,
this is how they're connected. This is one way that you see
the connection between spiritual wisdom and just being smart. is that if you don't know Christ,
which is spiritual wisdom, you're not the natural man receiving,
not the things of the spirit of God. But if you don't know
Christ, you don't know anything. You really don't. You think you
do. You may be good at something,
but you're gonna be good at it the day that God drops you in
hell. What you think you know is just fleshly pride that you
use for your own lusts and gain. That's not knowing something.
The most important thing to know about something is that God gets
the glory. You don't know anything if you
don't know Christ. It's that simple. You just really
don't. Noticed in the text that we read
in chapter two that wisdom has something to do with not knowing.
In verse two, he said, I determined to not know anything. That can be wisdom. You can be
real smart about stuff that don't make a hill of beans. Someone
can be very knowledgeable, but anything other than Christ is
not helpful. These gifts are given to be helpful.
Anything but Christ in the worship is harmful. Thankful for people that have
knowledge of other things in this world, but we're talking
about the church now And what is profitable in the church? They notice that the gifts are
not wisdom and knowledge Although those are the key our gifts But
the gifts that he's talking about because he's talking about the
manifestation of the spirit, right? And so he says the gifts
are the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. If you're wise, that can manifest
itself in what you do, but what's helpful to the church is the
next gift, faith. And faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word. So you see how they go together
here. You see why faith is the next gift here in verse nine,
to another faith by the same spirit, by that spirit that calleth
Jesus the one that owns me and decides everything concerning
me. That spirit gives you faith to know him who owns you and
who decides everything about you. Remember what Paul said
in Hebrews 12, looking unto Jesus. What do you see? What are you
looking at? What does that look like, Paul?
The author and the finisher of our faith. Looking unto him says
he's the object of our faith. But who are we seeing? We're
seeing the one that gave us faith. and has to continue to give us
faith and maybe, I pray, increase our faith and keep us looking
to Him and sustain us in every trial, in every storm, in every
evil that plagues our hearts and affects all of our thoughts.
But we keep looking to Him, why? Because He gave us faith and
He finishes it. That's who we're looking to and
that's what He's talking about here. Another faith by that Spirit
that says, I belong to him and could never call him accursed. I don't care what context in
which you're saying it. Don't you call my savior accursed.
Don't do that. Don't you do that. He was made
a curse for us. And we see what that means. That's
defined by all of the other places in the word that the subject
is broached. He bore my sins in his own body
on the tree. That's what it means. He suffered the just. He was
wounded for our transgressions. His enemy said, he's accursed
of God. God don't want nothing to do
with him. Look at him. Look what God's doing to him.
But they were wrong about that. He was always the Savior. He
was always the darling Son of God. Faith by that same Spirit. Another the gifts of healing
now every true member of the church has faith in Christ, but
not all the same strength of faith It's a gift of God to believe
at all Lord I believe help mine unbelief he can do that. He does
do that He does help What do we say what did the scripture
say these gifts are given for to help you Faith. What a gift. What a gift to have
little doubt rather than little faith. Oh, we ought to pray for that
every day. It was by faith that all the
men mentioned in Hebrews 11 did. what they did, and all of it
glorified the Son of God. It all exalted Him. That's because
it's that Spirit that calls Him Lord. I know I'm harping on that,
but we've gotta remember that throughout this subject of gifts. The gifts help us in the worship
of Him. Not help us feel more spiritual
or look at me. I'm sorry. You don't just keep
praying a little but you know You'll get it. You know I've
seen the attitude And clearly that's what was going on here
That Paul's dealing with Faith works Faith is not just internal It
works it can be shown James said show me show me And so it is
such a profitable gift to the whole church when we when that's
manifest In the church it helps us doesn't it helps us It never
faith never calls attention to self it always exalts the Savior
It always calls him Lord, and that's such a hell when you see
that in action when you see that in word and deed and Healing,
can you imagine this gift? Listen to James 5.14. Is any
sick among you? Let him call for the elders of
the church. This is how it was then. And let them pray over
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the
prayer of faith shall save the sick. That was a gift that God
commonly gave to men that would be set apart as elders. The Lord will raise him up. And
if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Think about this gift of healing.
Think about this church over the past five years. If the Lord had given us the
gift of praying over the sick If I could have come to the bedside
of some that were literally on death's door and put some anointing
oil in my hand and rubbed their head with it and prayed, God
save, help, heal, and the sickness would go away. Would that have
been a help to this church? Would that fire you up a little
bit to worship the Lord? That's what he did for them.
Of course, they were also killed for preaching, but it was a little
give and take back then. They needed that help, didn't
they? Oh my God, can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? You know what that would have
done? If you could see that happen, If you could see somebody that
you were afraid that they were gone, you're gonna lose them. And God healed him. And he used
somebody to do that. Would that make you look at that
person that did it and, you know, would the person that did that,
a true believer that was able to, that had that gift, would
that have puffed them up, you think? Not anybody that knows
the Lord, you reckon? Would that puff you up if you
could do that? Or would you realize the magnitude of what the Lord
Jesus has done for us? What a beautiful picture of the
gospel, and he gave them that, and he would confirm the word
by those gifts. And he illustrated the power
of the gospel in those gifts. Think about what that would have
been like. That's how the Lord thinks of
his church. He's gonna help us. He's not
gonna let us fall. He gave himself. He gave his
own blood for his church. He loves the church and gave
himself for it. He's gonna help us, isn't he?
He does help us. He is helping us. Could you ever be the same again
if you witnessed that? No way, man. Verse 10, to another
the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning
of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another
the interpretation of tongues. A miracle is something that man
can't do. It's something that only God
can do. Now we know now in our day that
God works miracles among us. He saved some of you right here
in this building, Some not that long ago, saved your soul right
here. I can't do that, we can't do that. That's a miracle. That's
the miracle of God. He changes hearts, he turns hearts. What he did for a while was use
the people in his church to perform miracles, visible miracles. And
again, what effect would that have if you could do a miracle?
Would you be puffed up about that? You'd know it was God,
wouldn't you? You'd know it was if you know
him. It might puff you up now if the
Lord let it, but what else might it do? If the Lord gave us grace
with the power, it might give us some idea of the power of
God and how much he loves us to be among us like that. Would
that confirm us? Do you ever wonder things like,
is God with us? Is he using this church for truth
or are we just playing? I think that would answer that
question, wouldn't you? If we could do miracles, that
would answer that question. Boy, they needed to know that.
They were putting, they were suffering. We don't even know
what it is to suffer. It would cause us to appreciate
him and his blessings. It would help us, wouldn't it? These other things worked by
God and his people to help his church that are mentioned here,
does he still do that? Well, not all of these things. The gifts that the apostles had
the power of transferring to other people, They didn't transfer
the power to transfer. They just gave them the gifts.
They laid hands on them and they had the gifts, but they didn't
have the power to transfer those gifts to other people. So when
the apostles died and all those that they, and that's verifiable
in the scripture. We looked at it before and we'll
look at it again sometime, but that's pretty clearly taught
in the scripture. But no way could Paul mention
every gift here that the Lord gives his church. There's so
many. We've talked about this before.
Generosity. These are mentioned in other
places that people were gifted to give. Even when they were
in need, they gave to other people who were in more need than they
were. Addiction to the ministry is mentioned in another place
in the scripture. That's a gift from God. I think
maybe the Lord gives us a little bit of that. No, no, no, doesn't
He? I might have a little bit of
that, I love that. I can't live without this, can you? The ministry
of Christ, all of it, all of it. The fellowship, the singing,
especially the gospel. And how are you gonna live without
that? That's the way Christ blesses
us. That's how he reveals himself. That's how we worship. All of it, and that's not the
flesh. That's not the flesh. That's not me by nature. I hate joining anything. Are
you like that? I hate clubs. I don't want to be in your club.
I'm sorry. The more people are involved in something, the stupider
it is. I don't want to have nothing
to do with it. I'm not joining. But being a part of this church,
this is not a club like it is to religious people. If you want to see how sinful
people are, join them in something. But if you want to see the grace
of God, how gracious God is, be a part of his church. I couldn't help but think about
D. I think this is a good time to use D as an example, don't
you? It's a good time to do that.
He was gifted in the word of wisdom, wasn't he, and knowledge.
He was gifted with a spirit of kindness like nobody I knew,
I don't guess. He was helpful. He helped God's
church. Always an encouragement, and
I mean always. Not ever one discouraging word
from that man. Isn't that the truth? It was
the truth in my case, I'll tell you that. I mean, encouraging. And the thing is, now he knows
for real who gets all the glory for all that. He's worshiping
the one that gifted him in those ways. He knew it all along, but
not like he does now. What a help these gifts are.
That's what he said. They're profitable. They're given
to be profitable. What are you doing fussing about
it? What are you doing getting proud? What are you doing making
a show in the flesh? This is God's tender care for
his church. And what an encouragement it
is. All these, verse 11, final thought. But all these worketh
that one in the self-same spirit, dividing to every man severally
as he will. You know, I don't wanna be able
to speak a foreign language. And as clearly indicated here,
if you couldn't interpret that, then what was the use of saying
it? Right, he deals with that in another place too. People
saying a bunch of gobbledygook nowadays and calling it speaking
in tongues. That's not the spirit of God. He says in another place,
what's the point of doing that if nobody knows what you're saying?
That's just for you. That's just your flesh is all
that is. It's not profitable to the church.
I don't wanna be able to do that and I don't think that's useful
anymore or God would give it to us. But I pray for more and more
of the ability to speak wisdom, the wisdom of God. We speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery and knowledge. I pray for a generosity
of spirit, spirit of empathy and kindness and forgiveness. I wanna be a
help. to God's people. I don't want to be selfish. I
don't want to be hurtful. By God's grace, I really don't.
I don't want to be complaining all the time. Why are we so prone
to that? We're so quick to find fault
with others. Lord, give us in whatever form, in whatever capacity,
to whatever degree, give us that spirit that looks to the Lord
Jesus Christ and says, I'm yours. And you make all the decisions.
And I'm real happy about that. That's the spirit that all of
this comes from. Honors Him in all things. What
could be more profitable to the church of the Lord Jesus than
to see Him, worship Him, bow to Him, look to Him alone. Lord, give us that. Amen. Let's pray.